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Toddler Eating Habits & Picky Eating Tips for Feeding a Picky Eater Set a Schedule Avoid Food fights Try Toddler Self-Feeding Start with Healthy Food Choices Early Make Food Fun Lead by Example Nutrition for Picky Eaters

Article Summary:

  • Picky eating is common during toddler years due to their developing independence and changing preferences.
  • Use creative methods like pureeing vegetables into favorite dishes and involving toddlers in food preparation.
  • Consider supplementing their diet with Enfagrow A+ and fuel your toddler with 26 key ingredients—including brain-building DHA—from the doctor recommended brand.

“No! I don’t wanna! That looks yucky!”

As you start introducing new foods to your toddler, you may hear the above sentence a lot at mealtimes. Picky eating tends to peak during the toddler years,1 and there are many reasons your toddler may be picky: they’re becoming more independent, learning their likes and dislikes, and beginning to listen to their intuition.2

Toddler Eating Habits & Picky Eating

On the bright side, toddlers are fun and adorable. On the not-so-bright side, they can also be incredibly picky about what food they eat at the dinner table. If you’re a parent of a picky eater, you know that mealtime can be a struggle. Trying to get your toddler to eat fruits, veggies and other nutritious foods can feel like a never-ending battle. Luckily, picky eating usually doesn’t last forever. Studies show that many children eventually outgrow picky eating, and it may just be a normal part of their development.3

Tips for Feeding a Picky Eater

While you’re trying to feed your picky eater, it’s important to remember what you can and can’t control about mealtimes:4

  • Parents can control what foods are served at mealtimes, what drinks are provided, and what (and how often) snacks are provided between meals—use Canada’s Food Guide to plan nutritionally complete meals.
  • Parents can control when and where food is served. Mealtimes and snack times should be consistent—and toddlers shouldn’t be left alone to eat, they do better when the household eats together. Consistency also helps your little one learn when and how often to expect to eat.
  • As much as parents may want to control if their picky toddler eats or how much they eat, they can’t—and they shouldn’t try forcing them to. No matter how picky your little eater may be, they won’t starve, and they can certainly be trusted to know whether or not they are still hungry.4 Explore our tips on how, when and what to feed a picky toddler below:

1. Set a Schedule

To support your toddler’s eating habits, aim to serve them meals and snacks around the same time each day. Toddlers can have erratic appetites. Toddlers’ growth slows down after infancy, sometimes causing a decrease in appetite or changes in appetite. Stick to a consistent breakfast, lunch and dinner schedule to help establish a regular eating routine. Also, try to limit giving your toddler sugary drinks and snacks or refined carbohydrates throughout the day. These food options usually do not provide many nutritional benefits, and they may spoil your toddler’s appetite for lunch or dinner later on.

2. Avoid Food Fights

When it comes to feeding your toddler, it’s important to try to minimize stress and conflict. Research shows that actions such as scolding, punishing, pleading or bribing your toddler to eat may actually have the reverse effect and lead to negative attitudes towards food or poor eating habits.5 Instead, give your toddler time and space to finish their meal. If your toddler isn’t hungry at dinner, cover the food and put it in the fridge for them to eat later on. The key is to work with your toddler—not against them!

3. Try Toddler Self-Feeding

Your toddler is in the process of developing their own little personality. As your toddler learns more about their likes and dislikes as far as food goes, they may prefer self-feeding. Instead of trying to force a spoonful of food into their mouth with the airplane trick, let them use the spoon themselves (and don’t worry too much about the spills—toddlers are messy!) If you give your child the opportunity to eat their meals at their own pace, they can exercise their developing sense of autonomy, and more food might get eaten in the long run!

4. Start with Healthy Food Choices Early

As a parent, you can’t control everything your child eats or doesn’t eat, but you can help manage what food options are available. Focus on introducing your toddler to a variety of nutritious foods from the start to help promote a well-balanced diet. Options such as citrus fruits, green veggies, whole grains, lean protein and certain dairy products like cheese and yogurt can be excellent choices for your toddler. It’s tough to wean toddlers off of junk food when that’s all they are used to eating, so try to break the cycle before it even begins by giving them healthy food options from the start.

5. Make Food Fun

Meals are more fun for you your toddler when you involve them in the cooking process. If your toddler plays a role in the meal preparation, they may be more inclined to eat later on. When you head to the grocery store before dinner, bring your toddler along! They can ride in the cart and help you pick out different items from the aisles. Another option is to give them safe, easy jobs to complete while you’re cooking, such as washing the vegetables, or having them help wash the dishes after dinner. Your toddler will like feeling important and involved.

6. Lead by Example

Your toddler watches you to learn how to behave. If you foster healthy eating habits in your own life, you might have a positive influence on your toddler’s eating habits as well. Eat healthy meals with your little one, and if you snack, opt for wholesome options like nuts, fruits or veggies and dip. If your toddler sees you eating and liking healthy food, they’ll want to do the same! In addition, try not to graze or let them graze throughout the day. Instead, establish a regular eating schedule full of nutritious food options that you, your toddler and the rest of the family can enjoy together.

Nutrition for Picky Eaters

While you and your toddler navigate picky eating, you may find yourself concerned that your little one isn’t receiving all of the nutrients they need to meet all of their developmental milestones. Discuss these concerns with your child’s doctor and keep a food journal as a reference of what foods and how much your picky eater eats so you have it as a reference. The doctor will likely plot your toddler’s growth on a standard growth chart as one way to assess potential health concerns.

With your doctor’s help, you may decide toddler nutritional supplements or vitamins may help your picky eater get enough of all of the nutrients they may need for healthy growth and development, as part of a healthy balanced diet.

Here are tips to help ensure balanced nutrition—and happier mealtimes.

Nutrition Concern

Tips

Examples

“My toddler refuses to eat vegetables”
  • Puree vegetables and hide them in foods and recipes that your toddler enjoys. Make sure the puree doesn’t change the colour, flavour and texture too much, and your toddler will never know they are eating vegetables!
  • Try juicing. Juice some vegetables with your toddler’s favourite fruit.
  • Try different dips for cut up vegetables like peppers, carrots, celery, sugar snap peas or broccoli.
  • You can puree sweet potato, carrots, squash or cauliflower and hide them in dishes such as macaroni and cheese, pizza, bread, muffins, soups or brownies.
  • Try combinations such as apple with carrot, beet, celery or spinach.
  • Dip vegetables in hummus, yogurt, ranch dressing, melted cheese or even ketchup.

“My toddler refuses to try new foods”
  • Be patient and continue to offer “new” foods. Some toddlers need to see a “new” food at least 10 times before they will try and accept it.
  • Get your toddler involved in preparing the new food.
  • Introduce “new” foods to your child when other children are eating and enjoying that food.
  • Get creative. Present foods in creative ways.
  • Have your toddler do age-appropriate tasks like adding items to dishes or washing fruits or vegetables.
  • Cut sandwiches into fun shapes with cookie cutters, design a face on their plate. Give food funny names like broccoli trees or ski slopes (mashed potatoes).

“My toddler wants the same food every day”
  • Let your child have their “favourite food”. Try to make it as nutritious as possible.
  • Serve the same thing with a twist.
  • Gently introduce new things. Try something familiar and favourite with something new and different.
  • If a big fuss is NOT made your child will soon move on to another favourite food.
  • If pasta is their favourite food, offer whole grain pasta and sneak in some pureed vegetables.
  • If it is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that they enjoy, try making peanut butter and jelly muffins instead.

“My toddler eats very little”
  • Respect your child’s awareness of his own body. A child’s appetite can vary from day to day and from meal to meal so he may not be hungry. A skipped meal every once in a while is not a concern as long as your child is growing normally.
  • Serve smaller amounts of food.
  • Make sure snacks are served well before meal times (e.g. 1-2 hours).
  • Avoid becoming a short order cook—children should get used to sharing the family meal.

“My toddler refuses to drink cow’s milk”
  • Offer small servings (125 mL or 1/2 cup) but don’t force it.
  • Offer alternate sources of calcium such as yogurt, cheese or Enfagrow® A+® toddler nutritional supplement.*
  • Use milk instead of water in cream soups, puddings and hot cereal.
  • Try making different smoothies and milkshakes with milk.
  • Add flavour to milk by mixing in a bit of Enfagrow® A+® vanilla nutritional supplement.

*Yogurt, cheese and Enfagrow® A+® are good sources of calcium, however, they do not provide the same amount of vitamin D as milk. Talk to your family doctor or a registered dietitian before deciding if he needs a supplement

We hope you found this article on how to feed a picky eater helpful. As you continue introducing new foods to your toddler, you might wonder if they’re getting the nutrients they may need now and for the future ahead of them. Enfagrow A+ is made for little explorers reaching this new step—with brain-building DHA* and 25 other key nutrients to support brain development and overall growth. Enfagrow A+ also has a unique fibre blend^. Fibre can promote good bacteria in the gut to help support the immune system. Explore more tips for feeding toddlers today.

*DHA supports the normal physical development of the brain, eyes, and nerves primarily in children under 2 years of age

^ Blend of PDX and GOS

  1. https://www.zerotothree.org/resources/1072-how-to-handle-picky-eaters
  2. https://caringforkids.cps.ca/handouts/healthy-living/when_your_child_is_a_picky_eater"
  3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4422022/
  4. https://www.unlockfood.ca/en/Articles/Child-Toddler-Nutrition/Say-Goodbye-to-Picky-Eating!.aspx
  5. http://www.bccdc.ca/Health-Professionals-Site/Documents/healthy_eating/Pediatric_Nutrition_Guidelines.pdf
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